Okay so O’Leary says “I understand what he’s doing” and then completely misdescribes what he’s doing. FWIW Trump isn’t imposing a VAT. Also: Contra O’Leary the economies with VATs have mostly seen anemic growth compared to the US. But the important point is how this completely undermines the case for Trump’s authority to do any of this. Presidents cannot impose VAT taxes unilaterally. And if that’s what Trump thinks he’s doing, then the legal case for tariffs is even more obliterated because he only has authority to impose tariffs for reasons of an international crisis of some sort (and the case for that is weak already).
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